Hello my friend, I’m back after my four week hiatus. The time of the High Holy Days is really intense, and I’m grateful that you are still here.We are now in the mythical, mystical time known as “acharei hachagim”, or after the holidays, and it’s time to pick up the threads of life again.

On the very last day of the High Holy Day season, known as Simchat Torah or the Rejoicing with the Torah, we finished reading the very last bit of the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), depicting the death and burial of Moses. Then we immediately started reading again, the very first lines of the Book of Bereshit (Genesis): In the Beginning, the Divine created the Heavens and the Earth …

This ancient poem, depicting the story of the six days of Creation, is one of my very favourite parts of the Torah. Not only is it fun to read, with its rhythmic repetition and cute little details (the Great Sea Monsters??), but it concludes, right at the end of the Sixth Day, with the creation of humans.

And G-d created humankind in the divine image,

creating it in the image of G-d—

creating them male and female.

Such simple words. No supremacy of one group of humans over another, no dominance of one sex over the other. The Talmud says (Sanhedrin 4:5) that the first humans were created singly, so that no person could say that their ancestors were greater than those of another. It would be wise for us to remember this in our day, as the pillars of white supremacy are trembling. 

All humans are worthy of dignity, honour and a good life – because they are created in the image of the Divine. Nobody has to earn the right to love, to rest, to have decent housing and healthy food. It is our birthright, as humans. There is no real scarcity of any of those things, anywhere. It was all created by us, and it can be fixed by us, too.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this!